


An Unlikely Ally

by Reis_Asher



Category: JUDGE EYES: 死神の遺言 | Judgment, 龍が如く | Ryuu ga Gotoku | Yakuza (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Murder, Murder-Suicide, No Sex, Pre-Canon, Spoilers, Trans Male Character, Trans Yagami, trans headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 17:03:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reis_Asher/pseuds/Reis_Asher
Summary: Yagami Takayuki is just another punk kid who found sanctuary on the streets of Kamurocho. In the famous red-light district, nobody asks who Yagami was in his previous life, and nobody cares. He's free from the expectations of a stifling society that had his life planned out for him.Kaito's fist to the face is one hell of a way to find validation for a young man coming into his own, but it's not enough. Yagami needs someone to see his truth and accept him in spite of that. Enter Matsugane, a yakuza patriarch who's seen the world and isn't afraid to offer the son of an old friend a future that doesn't end with him dead in a back alley.





	An Unlikely Ally

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is mostly just a vehicle for my trans Yagami headcanons. There's no sex (either explicit or implied) because Yagami is fifteen years old, though it's hinted very mildly that he has a crush on/attraction to Kaito. The rating is for violence. This takes place in pre-canon events mentioned in the game so there are spoilers.
> 
> This fic does mention trans stuff like T (testosterone) and binding (unsafely!!) so if those are things that make you uncomfortable or dysphoric, maybe you'd be happier skipping this. I really just wrote it for myself as I'm a trans guy who wants to see more trans characters.
> 
> I'd like to write some explicit Kaito/Yagami set in the current day based off this headcanon. Let me know if that's a thing you'd like to see.

Yagami slid the front door open and slipped off his shoes. He knew he was in for a lecture—if his father was home, that was. He wasn't home much any more, practically sleeping at the law office where he worked. His cases meant more to him than his family, that much was clear. Maybe they'd have another fight about Yagami's chosen name, or his gender identity, or both—the entire reason Yagami had gone to stay with a friend in the first place. People liked to say he was going through a rebellious phase, but he knew it wasn't just teenage angst. At least at his friend's home he would be gendered properly, and his friend would call him Takayuki-kun instead of the name he wanted erased from memory.

Yagami almost stepped in his father's blood before he even registered what he was seeing. His mouth fell open in shock as he saw his mother and father lying face down in pools of their own blood. A kitchen knife lay inches away. The scene was surreal, like he was looking down on it from above. They'd been butchered like pieces of meat, sliced open in a brutal murder that left them lying in pools of their own blood.

If only he'd been here, maybe he would have been able to protect them. It was a foolish notion, but he clung to it anyway as he padded into the kitchen, guilt flooding him as the truth sank in. A body swung from the ceiling fan, suspended from a rope. The bloated face of a man Yagami vaguely recalled from news coverage of his father's latest trial stared at him, eyes bulging from their sockets in a gruesome display of remorse. He was a family member of the victim. It had been a dead-to-rights rape and murder trial, and somehow his father had won an acquittal for the accused.

And paid for it with his own life.

Yagami slid down the wall and sobbed. The last words he'd spoken to his father had been angry ones. He could never take those back, now. Their recent relationship had been strained, but it was his father who'd taught him martial arts. Who'd accepted his early attempts at presenting as a boy, at least at home. It was only now he was growing older that his father had claimed to be concerned for his future.

Now there was nobody to worry about him. The days and night slipped past, Yagami largely disassociating from the funeral and its aftermath. He was left in the care of his grandparents, who insisted he present as a girl. Dysphoria was a constant, and he lived life as a dream, his mind elsewhere while he wandered around as a ghost. Whispers abounded that he'd suffered a mental break, and who could blame him? The pity was the worst, sad eyes glancing in his direction every time he tried to assert himself as a young man.

Yagami knew he couldn't stay. It was killing him slowly to pretend to be someone he wasn't. At night he crept out of the house and hailed a taxi to Kamurocho. Nobody questioned who he was when he could flatten punks twice his age. The language of violence validated him, even when he lost, and nobody questioned the bandages binding his chest when he tore off his shirt to lick his wounds. He was free from the stifling atmosphere of his grandparents' home, where they were already plotting to find him a good husband 'to straighten him out'.

So Yagami stopped going home, if it could even be called that. Kamurocho felt more like home now, the call of the sirens and the smell of sweat and blood and back alleyways calling to him on some deeper level. He liked to pick fights with Kaito, a low-ranking yakuza from the Matsugane Family. The man was so easy to rile up after a few drinks, and they often took it to the back alley behind Bar Tender. He hated yakuza and everything they stood for, but there was something about fighting Kaito that made his blood sing. Kaito never held back, and if he knew any of Yagami's secrets, he wasn't letting on. Yagami felt like his raw, honest self when he was receiving yet another beatdown. Some day he was going to beat Kaito. He'd make the man submit and then he'd truly be living his best life.

He used the money from his job at Tender to buy T from shady back-alley dealers who asked no questions. Yagami was aware he could have been buying anything, but his voice dropped quickly and he started to feel stronger. Like he was unstoppable. Like he was finally coming to life after years in a cocoon, trapped by a society that had already written his future. Here, among the outcasts, he was free.

If anyone found out he was only fifteen, he was in deep shit, but Kamurocho wasn't the kind of place to ask or care. He stayed away from the soaplands and the hostess clubs, even as the T awakened his desires. He couldn't afford to be found out, or the yakuza would sell him to a sex club like some exotic find.

He wondered if his luck had ran out the night Kaito brought the boss to the back alley where they fought. Paralyzed by a blow to the face, Yagami wasn't going anywhere fast as he sat back and panted his way through the pain. His nose was broken, blood pouring down his face, and all he could feel was triumph that he'd stained the ugly silk shirt Kaito was wearing. He'd left his mark on the man.

"This is that Yagami kid you mentioned?" Kaito's boss, Matsugane himself, stood over Yagami, eyeing him up like he was a piece of meat.

"Yeah. It's the same story every time we meet," Kaito explained.

Yagami didn't like others discussing his fate. His parents had done it, and his grandparents after them. Like his future was not his own. But Matsugane only empathized with him. Offered him a home, and a chance to do something other than die an ugly death in the streets. Yagami had known for a while that he needed more validation than new scars on his body and the smell of Kaito's sweat in his nostrils. He needed money, and top surgery, and papers, otherwise he'd die alone and they'd bury him under his dead name. As a girl. Kaito would find out and be embarrassed, their fights written off as the long-form suicide of some crazy teenager with a tragic backstory. The blood on his shirt would be borne in shame instead of pride. No yakuza took pride in winning a fight against someone perceived to be a woman. He'd stepped into a man's world, and he was determined to see it through.

So he went with Matsugane, wondering how he was going to keep his secret from his new benefactor. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, the idea of a future beyond tomorrow was starting to hold some appeal.

***

"I know what you are." He'd been living at the Matsugane Family Office less than a week when Matsugane cornered him in his room. "I knew your father, and I know he only had one child. A daughter."

Yagami looked around, grateful that the room was empty and the family were out doing collections. "I'm not a girl."

"No shit, kid. I get it. I wasn't born yesterday, and I've seen it all here in Kamurocho. I put two-and-two together when Genda-san told me Yagami's kid had been reported missin'. Didn't expect you to show up as some young punk with a death wish, but here you are. Figured I'd scoop you up before you got dragged into some yakuza shit and they find out who you are. I don't gotta tell you that wouldn't end well. You swear an oath and they ever found out, they'd make an example of you."

Yagami nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"In this world, you gotta keep your secret. From the family, and especially from Kaito. Boy's got way too much pride. He wouldn't see things your way. I assume you've been buyin' back alley hormones? That can stop, now. I know a doc who'll be discreet. Get you drugs and surgery and whatever else you need. I'll have a quiet chat with Genda-san and let him figure out what papers you need to change your name. In return, I expect you to study for the bar. Help Genda-san out, and deal with the family's legal issues. That sound like a good plan to you?"

Yagami balled his hands into fists. He'd expected the yakuza patriarch to laugh at him and toss him out on his ear, but here he was, offering him more understanding than anyone else ever had. His image of yakuza as old-fashioned thugs faded away. Matsugane was wiser than he'd ever imagined, and he understood why Kaito had offered this man his oath. In a different world, he would have sworn up, too, but it wasn't to be.

"Yes, sir." He bowed. "Thank you so much, Matsugane-san."

Matsugane laughed, a deep, throaty roar that could have woken the dead. "That's the most respect I've gotten from you. We'll make a lawyer outta you yet, kid." He patted Yagami on the back, a hearty thump that didn't hold back, and for the first time in a long time, Yagami felt hopeful about his future.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this and want to shout about it leave a comment or hit me up on twitter @landale


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